It’s a business decision for both the Illini staff and RayJ and his team…
Maximize your outcome when you can. Who knows what the future holds.
Of available options, from a talent standpoint, RayJ seems to be the best target. Better go out swinging!
For RayJ, he’ll play his butt off in an attempt to get to his dream of the NBA. He won’t risk that. Make as much as you can whether it be at Illinois, Utah, Baylor, etc.
Knowing how important next year could be and how good the team could be, it’s worth the risk. It’s 1 year with a handful of guys with NBA aspirations. They’ll do what they can to get there. If it fails for the Illini, so be it. They’re attempting to put the best team on the floor they can. I agree with it.
Lastly, IF it works, I suspect the long term reward is even greater.
Go Illini